Hollyhocks & Clematises

Hollyhocks and clematis are both types of perennials. They both like sun, but do not like to dry out.

Hollyhocks are short-lived plants, but if you let them drop seeds in the fall, you will always have a few new plants. I usually collect and keep some of the seeds to start a few plants in the house in the spring. Then I plant the seedings in the spaces in the flower bed where any of my other hollyhocks didn't come up.

Hollyhocks

This spring I found a hollyhock growing in the vegetable garden and another one in a bad spot in one of my other flower beds (my "Angel bed"). I dug both of them up and moved them to my hollyhock bed next to the house. One of them had bare roots, but I watered it well and eventually it started to grow.

More Hollyhocks

Another thing to keep in mind, Hollyhocks are actually a type of biennial. That means that in the first year seedlings do not grow very tall, nor do they flower till the second year.

General Sikorska clematis on right -light mauve flowers / Jackmanii on left- dark purple flowers

 Clematises like sun but prefer to have 'cool feet'. It's a good idea to mulch them well and to plant a shorter perennial or annual right in front of them. I have some black-eyed susans growing directly in front as well as some blue petunias. and a pink oriental poppy.

4 petal mutant Jackmanii flower

Jackmanii flower opening

General Sikorska light mauve flowers

Clematis vines need a trellis or something tall to climb on. The General Sikorska and the Jackmanii are both hybrid clematises. Their vines die back over winter, but I don't cut them off until spring because sometimes they don't die entirely.  They need to be kept well watered even in the fall.

Once established, clematises and hollyhocks have a beautiful, stunning display of flowers from mid summer till end of September and are well worth the effort to grow.